ike to what is bad, nor thy quick sense
of it,--but conceived a keen interest in the struggle between the bad
that revolted, and the good that attracted thee, in thy companion? Then,
perhaps, thou hast lost sight of him for a time; suddenly thou
hearest that he has done something out of the way of ordinary good or
commonplace evil; and in either--the good or the evil--thy mind runs
rapidly back over its old reminiscences, and of either thou sayest, "How
natural! Only, So-and-so could have done this thing!"

Thus I felt respecting Vivian. The most remarkable qualities in his
character were his keen power of calculation and his unhesitating
audacity,--qualities that lead to fame or to infamy, according to the
cultivation of the moral sense and the direction of the passions. Had
I recognized those qualities in some agency apparently of good,--and it
seemed yet doubtful if Vivian were the agent,--I should have cried, "It
is he; and the better angel has triumphed!" With the same (alas! with
a yet more impulsive) quickness, when the agency was of evil, and the
agent equally dubious, I felt that the qualities revealed the man, and
that the demon had prevailed.

Mile after mile, stage after stage, were passed on the dreary,
interminable, high north road. I narrated to my companion, more
intelligibly than I had yet done, my causes for apprehension. The
Captain at first listened eagerly, then checked me on the sudden. "There
may be nothing in all this," he cried. "Sir, we must be men here,--have
our heads cool, our reason clear; stop!" And leaning back in the chaise,
Roland refused further conversation, and as the night advanced, seemed
to sleep. I took pity on his fatigue, and devoured my heart in silence.
At each stage we heard of the party of which we were in pursuit. At the
first stage or two we were less than an hour behind; gradually, as we
advanced, we lost ground, despite the most lavish liberality to
the post-boys. I supposed, at length, that the mere circumstance of
changing, at each relay, the chaise as well as the horses, was the cause
of our comparative slowness; and on saying this to Roland as we were
changing horses, somewhere about midnight, he at once called up the
master of the inn and gave him his own price for permission to retain
the chaise till the journey's end. This was so unlike Roland's ordinary
thrift, whether dealing with my money or his own,--so unjustified by
the fortune of either,--that I could not